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Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang at the DAP/PR Sibu by-election media centre on Thursday, 13th May 2010:
Najib’s 3-minute lightning visit to Tua Pek Kong Temple leaving before start of procession a disappointment as advance publicity said the Prime Minister would speak at temple and lead the procession The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s three-minute lightning visit to Sibu Tua Pek Kong Temple last night, leaving even before the start of the historic procession is a disappointment all-round as advance publicity said the Prime Minister would speak at the temple and would lead the procession. The Tua Pek Kong Temple procession was to start at 6 p.m but was held back till 7.30 p.m for the arrival of the Prime Minister. Because of the SUPP build-up in the advance publicity for the Prime Minister’s visit to Tua Pek Kong temple to lead the procession, there was excitement and expectancy among the thousands who gathered at the Temple for the start of the procession and the tens of thousands of people lining the roads of the procession. Together with DAP/PR Candidate for Sibu, Wong Ho Leng and a battery of DAP MPs and State Assemblymen from throughout the country, including parliamentarians Chong Jien Ren (Kuching Bandar) Anthony Loke (Rasah), Liew Chin Tong (Bukit Bendera), we had waited for an hour at the head of the queue in front of the Tua Bek Kong Temple entrance to welcome the Prime Minister’s visit. However, we never get to greet the Prime Minister, as his entourage came like a storm, with his escorts pushing and shoving away the crowd of pressmen as well as the public (reckless of safety of children and womenfolk in the crowd). Before the public could recover from the storm of pushing and shoving by the Prime Minister’s entourage entering the temple, there was immediately another storm of pushing and shoving by the Prime Minister’s entourage leaving the temple – as Najib came and went in less than three minutes! During the patient hour-long wait by thousands for the arrival of the Prime Minister, the waiting public were repeatedly reminded to show that Sibu is a cultured and civilized place which appreciate the visit of the Prime Minister and to clap vigorously when the Prime Minister deliver his speech. But the Prime Minister did not give any speech. Neither did he lead the Tua Pek Kong Temple procession. In fact, Najib’s visit was so “lightning-short” and all over in three minutes – that the organizers did not even have the time to present the Prime Minister with the souvenir they had prepared! The SUPP leadership owes the people of Sibu, Sarawak and Malaysia an explanation they created the publicity build-up in the last few days saying that the Prime Minister would speak at the Temple and would lead the procession. Public disappointment that the Prime Minister had neither given a speech nor lead the procession as publicized earlier was palpable all round, as reflected by my tweets at the Tua Pek Kong Temple procession last night, viz:
*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
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